Million Dollar Maid ✔

Chapter 21

It had been a whole day since he'd gotten sick and there weren't any signs that he was improving at all. At some point, she would have to call in a doctor but every time she brought it up he'd just grumble "It's just the flu, don't call anyone."

The chicken soup had run out so she'd made him a sandwich, which he'd quietly thanked her for but still hadn't touched.

At least he had the strength to drag himself downstairs this morning which meant that she didn't have to walk up and down the stairs every time she brought him anything. To the untrained eye, it looked like he was watching tv but Ava had spent enough time staring at his glazy eyes to see that he wasn't actually watching what was on the screen.

He looked positively miserable and she hated it.

His long limbs were strewn over the sofa he was laying on, making Ava sit on the other one.

"Are you sure I don't have to call anyone?"

"I'm fine," he replied distractedly.

"But what about a family member? A friend? Your girlfriend?" The last one was difficult enough to get out and she silently hoped he'd deny having one. Why it bothered her so much was a mystery to her but she still wanted to know.

"I barely have any family members, unless you want to call my aunt in which case; please don't. I'm not in the mood to see any of my friends and I don't have a girlfriend. So no, don't call anyone."

The tiniest flare of relief made her sit up straighter but it was overshadowed by curiosity. "You don't have any siblings?" she asked, trying to skim around the fact he hadn't directly said anything about his parents.

"My sister died when we were kids," he said, his gaze suddenly sharper than it had been before.

"I'm sorry," she said, suddenly feeling guilty for bringing it up.

"It's fine, it was a long time ago," he sighed while sitting up. "Do you have any?"

Ava shrugged. "If I do I'll probably never know. Maybe they were adopted, maybe they never existed. I don't know."

"And your parents?"

Again, Ava shrugged. "Maybe they just didn't want me or maybe they died. They didn't tell us that stuff." While she didn't particularly like talking or even thinking about the subject, it did provide her with a good window to ask him about his. "What about yours?"

For the first time he looked away from her eyes and she knew something was up. It took him a moment to find the right words but he spoke them very quietly. "My dad died a few years ago. And as for my mother... She's where she should be."

The use of 'dad' and 'mother' told her more than his sentence itself did. He obviously didn't like the woman enough to call her 'mom' but she wasn't willing to press it. She knew better than most what it was like to not want to talk about a certain subject.

In a way, it felt like they were the same. Unlike her, he did have people who cared about him. Friends who waited for him to come back to town so they could hang out and George and Lauren. The latter were employees of his but she knew both of them deeply cared about him. Even his aunt, who she'd met once when she stayed at the estate.

But both of his parents were gone, in some way or another, so he knew what it was like to miss that kind of parental guidance. It made her think about what it would be like to have known your parents and then lose them. Would it feel similar to never knowing them at all? Or did it hurt even worse?

There weren't any correct answers to these questions, she knew, but it didn't stop her from wondering.

When his phone suddenly went off in the most hideously annoying way she jumped. Sébastien let out a drawn-out groan before reaching over to grab it.